Felix Hernandez stymied the Tigers and only allowed 2 hits and no walks. The biggest indication of the Tigers woes today was Placido Polanco striking out 3 times.

Verlander gave up a couple first inning runs as he struggled with his command early on. He loaded the bases with one out and looked like he may get out of it when Granderson made a diving play and Jose Lopez forgot to tag up. But a jam shot single plated two and that would be all the Mariners would need.

They’d get two more in the 4th inning when the Tigers decided to trade a couple outs for runs. With a suicide squeeze attempt in the works, Verlander intentionally bounced a curve ball. Pudge blocked it but couldn’t find the handle and the run scored.

Later Edgar Renteria biffed an inning ending double play ball on the exchange and another run scored.

And Aquilino Lopez wasn’t very good after recording 2 outs.

And Jim Leyland got ejected on a call that even had Granderson arguing.

….And then Felix sends down the side 1-2-3 on only eight pitches…… This is why the Tigers struggle against quality opposing pitching. They don’t know when to be aggressive or when to grind it out.

Dave BW

May 31, 2008 at 4:31 pm

Verlander retires the side in order.

Joey C.

May 31, 2008 at 4:34 pm

Doesn’t Larish play first? Wouldn’t the infield be markedly improved with him actually playing first? I mean shore up at least one of the corners for godsake. I don’t understand for the life of me why we don’t put Cabrera in left, DH Guillen, Inge to third and Larish to first.

Nah. Jimmy prefers to a let a guy who can’t throw, throw to a guy who has problems digging the ball. Sweet stuff.

They must really fear the Seattle bullpen because they seem intent on helping Felix throw a complete game by swinging at every pitch that might be called a strike.

cib

May 31, 2008 at 6:11 pm

Eww I came back hoping something might have happened but UGH.
Well congratulate me, gang, my firstborn graduates from High School tomorrow. I should be able to check in and catch most of the game however, between the ceremony and dinner out!

Kevin in Austin

May 31, 2008 at 6:27 pm

Congrats cib, job well done.

I don’t mind losing the game, we won’t win ’em all (or even 1/2 of them), and the shutout is annoying, but JV really pitched much better than 4 ER in 7 IPs. Pudge and Renteria cost him 2 runs and likely another inning (when you consider pitch count).

WOW! 9 shutouts so far. We’re on pace to get 27 for the season. That is absolutely unbelievable.

I just keep waiting and waiting for this offense to start producing with some level of consistency, but this is truly bewildering. For a while I’ve been hoping that this is some kind of fluke, that the Tigers have had the misfortune of running into hot pitchers, or that they are going through a team-wide hitting slump and that eventually things would get on track.

But now I’m at the point to where I think that this is it. This is what we are going to see all year. 55 games into the season is enough to know that this team and this hitting lineup really, really stinks. And that both Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Rentara are monster disappointments who have added nothing to the offense.

Dave BW

May 31, 2008 at 7:47 pm

“This is what we are going to see all year”

Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. Regardless, constantly predicting worst case scenarios with absolute certainty won’t change anything one way or the other, so why bother?

“Regardless, constantly predicting worst case scenarios with absolute certainty won’t change anything one way or the other, so why bother?”

Because it’s what we do on sport fan forums when worst case scenarios are playing themselves out. Otherwise, what else is there to talk about, other than the performance or issues regarding the team? Should we just discus how green the grass is in Seattle?

Anyway, I wasn’t making any kind of irrational prediction here. All I was doing was looking at the box scores of the past 55 games and extrapolating that for the other two-thirds of the season.

Dave BW

May 31, 2008 at 10:26 pm

“Because it’s what we do on sport fan forums”

It is certainly what you do, at any rate, so perhaps you’re right. I apologize for taking up your valuable complaining time.

I’m not professing any kind of certainty at all. Part of the usefulness of extrapolation is it gives a perspective on past sample size.

How bad is an offense that gets shutout 9 times in 55 games? Well, at this rate they are due to be shutout 27 times this season. How bad is a 23-32 record? Well, at this pace they will lose 94 games… That is goddamn awful, isn’t it?

Of course I’m not certain that the rest of the season will remain as crappy. That’s why I keep waiting and watching and hoping that there is at least a sign that they are going to turn this thing around and start playing like they were supposed to. The frustration comes when there is no sign.

Pretty soon, if they don’t start playing better and start winning they are going to be so far out of it then their fate will be sealed. That will be the point in which I’ll stop worrying about this season and look to the future. If they have another month like this, then we will easily be able to say for sure that this team was a huge bust.

And that, BTW, will be worth commenting on.

Dave BW

June 1, 2008 at 12:20 am

“That will be the point in which I’ll stop worrying about this season and look to the future”

But why are you “worried” about their performance at all? That doesn’t sound very fun. Watching the Tigers isn’t a job, Chris.

I understand the sentiment about firing Leyland. And I’ve expressed that as a wish myself. But really. What has he not done to try to turn this thing around? He’s tried just about everything. It isn’t like he just fiddled as Rome burned. And I have a hard time blaming Leyland for this mess.

ron

June 1, 2008 at 9:12 am

He has fiddled as Rome burned, starting with that 2006 celebration. He should have told the players to get their asses back in the dugout, we haven’t won anything yet. That would have been a nice button to push at the time. He was asleep at the wheel last August. This year is more of the same. If he doesn’t know what buttons to push to a team of all stars at this point in his career, then he has to go.

ron

June 1, 2008 at 9:46 am

Illitch must be waiting for the Red Wings to finish off the Penguins before he deals with the baseball issue. At his age, it’s hard to multi-task. Go Red Wings.

Honestly I don’t think firing anyone will help, nor should anyone be fired. Figure out what went wrong, what if anything can fix it for 2009, sure. Review performances at the end of the year, sure. But I’ve done a 180 on firing Leyland. He’s shown a willingness to try things, shown his has the fire in his belly, he should stay.

Only Tiger Fan in Mississippi A good read on the Tiger's inability to work any deals during the Winter Meetings.
http://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2016/12/05/detroit-tigers-winter-meetings/95021824/
I have thought all was

StorminNorman$ http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/12/red-sox-to-acquire-chris-sale.html
DD still making the moves - Sale traded to BOS... the "good news", now DET will only have to

Tony de Florida Agree, without Miggy and JV attendance should go in the tank unless we're getting Trout from the Angels or Jake

Smoking Loon Stormin, in my opinion Detroit is a worse and less interesting team without Verlander and Cabrera, a team without a

StorminNorman$ word on the street is that Tiger fans should get used to mediocrity, unless some of the young players and

Tony de Florida I've been too busy to add my wisdom (please control your laughter) but have been trying to read the blog

StorminNorman$ i could see DD bringing him to BOS to replace Big Sloppy, but i doubt BOS would give up much

Only Tiger Fan in Mississippi V-Mart trade talk:
http://m.tigers.mlb.com/news/article/209950064/tigers-victor-martinez-drawing-interest/
As we know, while the guy can certainly hit a baseball, he isn't the fastest thing around